I remember you mentioning a magazine when I was on this forum back in 2008 - Portal? Was it called, or something - But I could never find it, so assumed it was a society magazine or the like.

[edit: Ah, just spotted it was called Flagship]

My entry into PBM gaming was through an article Agema posted in Wargames Illustrated back in 1998 or 99, Panzer's East. Before Agema mentioning PE and Assyria's End in the classified pages of tabletop toy soldier magazines, the only other PBM I'd heard of was the Austerlitz game as that also advertised in the toy soldier periodicals.

Obviously hearing that there's a PBM magazine available is news in itself to me.

Is PBM gaming a large hobby then? Larger than just Agema and a couple of other UK games masters, that is.

Kingmaker wrote:Look at the bottom of the forum there has been 10 issues of it have a read of the latest issue

Thanks. I've have had a 'flick-through' look at them all now. All the other games seem too complex for my abilities, so I think I'll stick with Richard.

You have a nice blog on miniature wargaming.

You should submit an article and/or photos pertaining to that. Also, you are welcome to send me an ad for stuff that you're selling, there. A full page image ad would be 800 pixels wide by 1035 pixels high. Smaller ads are fine, also. Just provide a URL address for the exact page that you want the ad linked to, if you are interested.

In these days of digitized everything, it’s nice to find an old-school hand-moderated game.

The Glory of Kings is set in the early 18th century. Players typically take the role of nation leaders, typically kings and princes, and attempt to steer their nations to glory. The game is generally Euro-centric, but Asian, Indian, and African powers are available for those who want a different kind of challenge. As the leader of your people, you will make the key military, financial, and diplomatic decisions that will decide your fate in the world.

The game is played in monthly increments, with turns coming about every three weeks. Turns run £9, though there is a frequently-used option to do unlimited orders which will result in higher fees (as the more time it takes the GM to process the orders, the more you will be charged). While extra orders will allow you to do more, it is fair to say it won’t always allow you to accomplish more. Speaking of orders, Turn orders are relatively free-form, so you a lot of liberty in how you approach the game. Some just want to conquer, some want to build up their economy and become wealthy, some want to win friends and have an elegant court life. Some try to do it all! There is a monthly newspaper that tells of the doings of the world, and most players do their best to make sure their court is shown in a favorable light.

The first thing to decide in picking up the game, is what type of position you’d like to play. More experienced players would encourage you to take a smaller position in an existing game to get your feet wet and get a feel for the game. One of the natural consequences of a well-run and long-running hand moderated game is that success isn’t easy, and setbacks come frequently. If it was too easy to achieve victories in the game, then ‘success inflation’ would set in quickly, and the game would collapse under its own weight. The game rewards the persistent and resilient players who keep pushing and trying.Key decisions that you will make is how to use your treasury. You’ll have yearly expense for upkeep of your fortifications, research academies, churches and troops. Then you’ll probably want to invest a part of the excess tax and trade revenues to invest in growing your trade revenue, so you’ll have more to spend in subsequent years.

Another key resource you get is recruits. Every year you get a certain number of hale and hearty young men whom you can use to build up your military or improve your nation by using them for things like a judiciary or introducing new farming techniques. Recruits can also be used to make your investment monies stretch farther, but this is generally viewed by most players as a very inefficient use of a relatively scarce resource.

A key characteristic of the game that can sometimes be frustrating is a position’s “Honour” rating. The game wants to encourage you to play in period. So the better you play in period, please your nobles and others, the more honour you will accumulate. Shock your nobles and people with your outlandish ideas and actions, and watch your honour plummet. If honour falls too low, you can have rebellions and other problems. Some players like to think of honour as another game currency – the good will you have banked with your people. You can then ‘spend’ honour to do something drastic that might upset the better sorts in your nation. Honour is a bit position dependent, so if you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at being Blackbeard then treachery and nastiness are going to impress your men, not effete courtesy!

For those who want an even simpler introduction to the Glory of Kings world, there is the Swashbuckler option where you play just a single character trying to rise in the world for £5 a turn. The position is naturally much more limited, but it can help give you a sense of the world.There are new player guides, as well as many players willing to advise and support new players at the AGEMA Games forums: agema.darkbb.com

In these days of digitized everything, it’s nice to find an old-school hand-moderated game.

The Glory of Kings is set in the early 18th century. Players typically take the role of nation leaders, typically kings and princes, and attempt to steer their nations to glory. The game is generally Euro-centric, but Asian, Indian, and African powers are available for those who want a different kind of challenge. As the leader of your people, you will make the key military, financial, and diplomatic decisions that will decide your fate in the world.

The game is played in monthly increments, with turns coming about every three weeks. Turns run £9, though there is a frequently-used option to do unlimited orders which will result in higher fees (as the more time it takes the GM to process the orders, the more you will be charged). While extra orders will allow you to do more, it is fair to say it won’t always allow you to accomplish more. Speaking of orders, Turn orders are relatively free-form, so you a lot of liberty in how you approach the game. Some just want to conquer, some want to build up their economy and become wealthy, some want to win friends and have an elegant court life. Some try to do it all! There is a monthly newspaper that tells of the doings of the world, and most players do their best to make sure their court is shown in a favorable light.

The first thing to decide in picking up the game, is what type of position you’d like to play. More experienced players would encourage you to take a smaller position in an existing game to get your feet wet and get a feel for the game. One of the natural consequences of a well-run and long-running hand moderated game is that success isn’t easy, and setbacks come frequently. If it was too easy to achieve victories in the game, then ‘success inflation’ would set in quickly, and the game would collapse under its own weight. The game rewards the persistent and resilient players who keep pushing and trying.Key decisions that you will make is how to use your treasury. You’ll have yearly expense for upkeep of your fortifications, research academies, churches and troops. Then you’ll probably want to invest a part of the excess tax and trade revenues to invest in growing your trade revenue, so you’ll have more to spend in subsequent years.

Another key resource you get is recruits. Every year you get a certain number of hale and hearty young men whom you can use to build up your military or improve your nation by using them for things like a judiciary or introducing new farming techniques. Recruits can also be used to make your investment monies stretch farther, but this is generally viewed by most players as a very inefficient use of a relatively scarce resource.

A key characteristic of the game that can sometimes be frustrating is a position’s “Honour” rating. The game wants to encourage you to play in period. So the better you play in period, please your nobles and others, the more honour you will accumulate. Shock your nobles and people with your outlandish ideas and actions, and watch your honour plummet. If honour falls too low, you can have rebellions and other problems. Some players like to think of honour as another game currency – the good will you have banked with your people. You can then ‘spend’ honour to do something drastic that might upset the better sorts in your nation. Honour is a bit position dependent, so if you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at being Blackbeard then treachery and nastiness are going to impress your men, not effete courtesy!

For those who want an even simpler introduction to the Glory of Kings world, there is the Swashbuckler option where you play just a single character trying to rise in the world for £5 a turn. The position is naturally much more limited, but it can help give you a sense of the world.There are new player guides, as well as many players willing to advise and support new players at the AGEMA Games forums: agema.darkbb.com

I figured next issue I may pull out one of my starting positions and talk about building my orders for turn 1. I thought I might offer the full first turn setup if Richard was ok with that so people could get a sense of the game better.

I think personal anecdotes of things in game would also work well, and though in subsequent issues I might cover that.

Of course, other perspectives besides mine would be great to show that this is a dynamic game with lots of different perspectives.

Kingmaker wrote:Look at the bottom of the forum there has been 10 issues of it have a read of the latest issue

Thanks. I've have had a 'flick-through' look at them all now. All the other games seem too complex for my abilities, so I think I'll stick with Richard.

You have a nice blog on miniature wargaming.

You should submit an article and/or photos pertaining to that. Also, you are welcome to send me an ad for stuff that you're selling, there. A full page image ad would be 800 pixels wide by 1035 pixels high. Smaller ads are fine, also. Just provide a URL address for the exact page that you want the ad linked to, if you are interested.

Thank you. But, in truth, I'm a bit disillusioned with the whole toy soldier hobby at the moment, as its becoming less about the game and more about making artistic displays of talent. People are less rewarded for how they play the game, but celebrated for how well the overall spectacle looks. All fur coat and no knickers, being an British expression that comes to mind.

As to the trading part. I'm not the seller, just a friend of the business owner, who doesn't have the time to fully exploit the digital market.

Deacon wrote:

The game is played in monthly increments, with turns coming about every three weeks. Turns run £9,